Wedderburn book > History

INTBODUCTION. Ivii.
collector of taxations. He was, in addition, for some years keeper of the Forfar introd.
Register of Sasines, and is so named from 1624 to 1637, when the post became
vacant by his decease, which occurred in September of the last-named year.
He had married in 1612 Magdalen Scrymgeour, daughter of John Scrymgeour
of Kirktoun (an important branch of the Scrymgeours of Dudhope, constables of
Dundee), and by her (who died before 1629) had had issue two sons, of whom
John, living in 1629, died unmarried in the lifetime of his father, his brother,
Alexander, being his executor and heir.
This Alexander, third of Kingennie, was born in 1615, and on the death
of his father was retoured heir both to him and to the
tt|ird a S? er first Kingennie. He was admitted burgess of Dundee in 1632,
H3i^83 nie ' when only seventeen years of age. He is repeatedly named
in the burgh records, as bailie, kirkmaster, captain of the
Overgait for the weapon-schawing, commissioner to represent the town in
various disputes, references which show him to have been a capable man,
who had the confidence of the burgh, of which he became chief magistrate
in 1660. This office he held for six years, during which he twice — 1662
and 1663 — represented Dundee in parliament. He was provost again for
a second period (1676-80), and at this time also, was again (1678-79), its
parliamentary representative. In church politics I incline to think that he
went with the times, for while in 1639 he is elected to the new council
as "a faithful covenanter," and in 1644 lent the town £1,000 towards a sum
advanced by it for "the late Northern expedition" of the Marquis of Argyle,
we find him after the Restoration obtaining a license from the Privy Council,
allowing " him and those at his table to eat flesh in Lent and upon the
three weekly fish days named in the late (1663) proclamation."
He largely added to his estate by the purchase in 1662, for 38,000
merks, of the barony of Easter Powrie, co. Forfar, from Dougall
S'eb^ronyof ° f McPhersone of Bellachroan. There are numerous documents
i662 er t, ° wrie ' relating to this purchase among the family papers, from which
it appears that it involved him in prolonged litigation and
perhaps provided an element of the " private splean," out of which McPhersone
encouraged another law suit against him. This was a process by Wedder-
burn's ward and cousin, Margaret Scrymgeour, a daughter of one of his
mother's brothers, whose widow had married McPhersone, in regard to his
administration of her father's estate. The suit lasted from 1664 to 1676,
Margaret being led on by her stepfather "out of a private splean he beares "
to Wedderburn, even after the defender had got a decree of exoneration
in the suit. A really final judgment in these days seems to have been a
thing very difficult to obtain.
The death of Easter Powrie occurred 9 April, 1683, when he was buried in
the Howff of Dundee under a splendid monument bearing his arms and those
of his first wife, and a Latin inscription describing him as " head of his
house, provost of the burgh, and its delegate to the first parliament of
Charles II." He had been thrice married— (1) in 1638-39,
The marriages to Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of John Ramsay of
of Efl.st©r • kit
Powrie. Dundee, who died in 1643, leaving issue, two sons, Alexander
and John (who died in 1648), and one daughter, Magdalen,
who married in 1659 her cousin, John Scrymgeour of Kirktoun, and had
issue, including an only surviving son, Alexander Scrymgeour (born 1669),
from whom descend the Scrymgeour- Wedderburns, now of Wedderburn ; (2)
in 1643-44, Margaret Fotheringhame, by whom he had issue, a son, David,
and a daughter, both of whom died young; and (3) in 1660, Margaret Milne,
relict of Major Robert Lindsay, and daughter of Alexander Milne, burgess
of Dundee and Elgin, by whom, who survived him and was life-rentrix of
4 'ane greatt tenement or ludgeing lying in the Overgait of Dundee"